


Christmas at the Avengers' Tower

by Agent C (arh581958)



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Avengers are good bros, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Preparations, Christmas Tree, Crack, Humour, M/M, Teambonding, Teamwork, light - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 06:51:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5324621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arh581958/pseuds/Agent%20C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas at the Avenger's Tower is a well-orchestrated assortment of decorations made by their resident decorator-slash-holiday-clock, JARVIS. But Steve, being Steve, still feels that all the lights and sounds and holograms cannot compare to a good ol' fashion Christmas. So the rest of the Avengers come up with a plan to make it memorable for their fearless leader. </p><p>(Or: How the Avengers tried to save Steve's Christmas which, inevitably, caused more chaos than they bargained for because, duh, posse of freaks/geniuses/superhumans + 1 god)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas at the Avengers' Tower

**Author's Note:**

> Because CW broke my heart. 3

At first the team did not really care, 'cause they just got the band together and everyone was still adjusting to living in close-quarters with everyone else.

It wasn't until Bruce pointed out on that one Saturday in July that they should have a _feast_. Thor, of course, was all-too-eager to agree without much understanding as to the reason _why_ they should have a feast. Between the two of them, they could easily consume and entire cow alone but together they prepared a literal feast--with cold cuts, asgardian-type mead, Bruce's fancy-shamcy recipes from all over the word--that was a mismatch but no less delicious.

"It is Christmas?" Clint asked aloud when he arrived home. Phil and Natasha were followed shortly behind him. The still-pretending-to-be-spies-not-heroes team, as the other Avengers like to call their merry little trio, had begun the habit of going home together after their respective shifts in the 'office'. Really, it was just Phil who actually had _an office_ there.

"It's October, Clint." Natasha said with an eye-roll as she stepped inside. She took pleasure in beating the hell out of sorry-excuses for agents in the training room and Clint, well, he liked scaring the baby-agents into wetting their pants in the corridors. Phil, of course, had to filed paperwork to explain the 'unsanitary discharge of bodily fluids'. "Christmas isn't for another two months"

"Natalie's right" Tony pipes up as he enters the dining area from whichever corridor he spouted from. "It's just July." Natasha was glaring daggers at him. He had never seem to let her cover identity go and refers to her as _Natalie, bomb-shell booty, or Vicky_ as in Victoria secret fashion model that came with her cover packet. She still has not found and buried the person responsible for that file.

God-only-knows or maybe JARVIS has the entire schematics of this place memorized at any given point. The rest of the Avengers had given up _trying_ to map-out Stark's legendary smart house aka the Avenger's Tower which was constantly changing and rearranging at any given moment every single day. Think the moving staircases in Harry Potter but more high-tech and less predictable. It was a price worth paying for extra-security.

"Then is it Steve's birthday?" Clint wondered out loud. He took up a perch on the counter, on the tiny space where the serving bowls did not occupy and dipped a hand in the guacamole. "Hey, Doc, this is pretty good grub. And it's enough to feed me, Steve, _and_ Thor!"

"That would be most adequate, young Clinton." Thor booms from the kitchen because he is Thor and has no sense of _inside_ voice whatsoever. He thinks it meant the voices in his head. If that was the case, no other avengers knows _how_ he can keep that cheery grin on his face almost-permanently. Especially with all the all-speak going through his head. He's get along with the Doctor if that guy ever decided to drop it. "Tis the intention to feed thy weak souls with blessings from the all-father!"

"Woah, what's this?" Steve back pedals into the dining area. He was wearing his workout gear and his shield. Oh, it was _that_ day, huh? He surveyed the entire room, looking from one side to the other until he put his shield down with a sigh. "Tony... what exploded?"

Tony looked utterly shocked. "W--what? Why does it always have to be _my_ fault when something weird happens in the tower? JARVIS" he called out to the ceiling. "Fire me up some number of when I _didn't_ cause the hooolabaloo in the tower!"

"Sir" the dismembered voice spoke. "The results are not in your favour..."

"--It's Eid-Al-Ftr" Bruce broke in. He walked out of the kitchen with a large tray of oven-baked lamb. He was wearing the frilly pink apron that Tony bought Natasha as a gag-present for her birthday. She left it in the kitchen with disgust but didn't burn it so it was considered an acceptance. It's only been used a couple of times. They rarely had _homemade_ team dinners with all the crime-fighting that they do. They do, however, make it a point to have JARVIS order takeaways after missions.

"I was thinking that we could celebrate. We celebrated it back when I was in India. It's for gratitude and I---well, I'm thankful to have a team again. I didn't realize how much I missed _not_ being alone."

"Oh" Tony muttered. The entire team had quieted down.

"Thank you, Bruce." Phil cut in. He has taken off his tie and the first two buttons of his dress shirt. "It's a wonderful idea. Why don't we all eat? We haven't had a decent meal in ages." He looks up at the ceiling. "No offense JARVIS but pad thai isn't a home-cooked meal." He was the first to sit down. Clint followed, taking the seat beside him. Then Natasha, then Bruce, then Thor, then Steve, then Tony. Until all of them were sitting in elbow-in-elbow at the seemingly small dining room table.

"Okay then, JARVIS, fire up them mood lights!" Tony bellowed with a snap of his fingers. As he commanded the lights dimmed and the multitude of colours started to stream through uncanny places. JARVIS transformed the floor to mimic Indian influences along with folk music.

That's how the pattern began.

***

Christmas at the Avengers Tower was like most holidays in the Avengers Tower: extravagant, over the top, and--- _electronic_. Because they were superheroes who were fighting big-baddie of the month, or mini-baddie of the week, and those nuisances in front of the tower--oh wait, they were reporters, never mind--- the point being that they did not have _time_ to go shopping for whichever holiday decoration in season was.

Holiday after holiday, JARVIS made sure that the residents of the Avengers tower felt _which_ holiday was being celebrated. It came to now one surprise that, by the first of December, green and red mood lighting were increasing around the tower along with the occasional mint, cinnamon, and toffee nut flavours that made their way into the AI's morning lattes. None of the team members seemed to mind, except Natasha because she wanted green tea in her lattes.

Steve was looking less-than-chipper this morning when he came back from his morning run.

"Is something wrong, Steve?" Phil asked, still feeling a little bit giddy over the fact that he can call _Captain America_ as Steve. This was all his boyhood fantasies and comic book dreams come to life after all. He was sitting at the breakfast counter with a cup of plain black coffee and a newspaper in hand. It meant that he hasn't been too long because it was his _first_ cup of coffee--always taken black and the ones with mysterious JARVIS flavours came later. He was also not yet wearing his jacket.

"Good Morning to you too, Phil." Steve greeted, amicable as ever before sitting down across him. Phil pushed a plate of freshly made sandwiches to him. It started out as a trust-building thing that was eventually ingrained as a well-welcomed routine for the team: whoever intended to eat breakfast first, makes breakfast for everybody. Steve raised a questioning eyebrow before taking one. It said something that the other man understood his unspoken question.

"Clint was hungry." Phil replied without sounding the least bit embarrassed by the implications of what he just said. Steve blushed for him and bit into his sandwich. Phil watched him, in a non-creepy-stalker way, from the corner of his eyes as he ate his own breakfast. He waited until Steve had finished two before asking again. "Is something wrong, Steve? You were sighing when you came back from your run."

It was left to hang there, out in the open, with the faint sound of Christmas Carols filling the air.

Steve let his shoulders hunched. "It's just that..." he started, eyes wandering around the room if there was anybody else with them. But most of all, he was worried about Tony overhearing him. He leaned forward, arms bracing over the counter, like he was telling Phil a secret. In many ways, it was a secret. "...I wish this was all more... _organic_...?" he couldn't quite describe what he was feeling.

"The whole thing with the holo-magics and light floating things blow my mind but then... I just kinda miss a good old fashion Christmas tree being decorated, ya know?" he said, letting the Brooklyn slang bleed into his tone. He only did it a handful of times and only amongst friends.

Phil has to wonder what good he did in his past life to be considered Captain America's friend. _You faked died_ , his brain supplied and he barely suppressed his winced. He opened his mouth to say something comforting like _it's okay, this is the new world_ or _because it's Stark_ or something witty that would make Steve's day a little better. But he couldn't because Clint swoops in from the ceiling, even if there was a perfectly normal corridor from Phil's room to here, and kisses him on the cheek.

"Ready to go, _Director_?" Clint purrs in Phil's ear. This time, Phil's entire being does a full-body shudder. The gears start tumbling in his head and he falls into Director-mode. Clint likes it, he likes Director Coulson _a lot_. He dropped his feet to the floor then put the vent cover back, looking like he _did not_ just drop from the ten-foot ceiling. He dusted off imaginary soot off his jacket and smiled a lopsided grin at his---Phil. Thinking about it, even in his head, made Clint blush.

Phil threw Steve an apologetic smile before turning back his Clint. He dusted even more imaginary soot off the man's broad shoulder as if it was merely an excuse to show _some_ kind of intimacy between them. "Natasha?" he inquired, stepping off the bar stool. He looked at Steve. "Do enjoy the rest of those sandwiches, Steve, but leave some for Thor. I used Candian Bacon, he loves it."

Steve nodded.

"Got a note on my bed saying she left first." Clint answered with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows. "You know, Nat. The green and red lights hurt her eyes. She's grabbing snacks on the way for the briefing later from that food cart that I accidentally fell on the other day." he rubbed the back of his neck. "Got to pay the guy forward for, uhm, destroying his source of income...? Urgh, you know Nat, she's a softie..."

There's voices trail off as they enter the elevator. It was nice, Steve said to himself, this was all nice. This is all _nicer_ than what he had when he was growing up as a kid. Still, looking around, he missed the smell of roast cooking from the neighbour's over, the Yule log down at the base, and the fresh smell of the Christmas tree. He sighed, grabbed a sandwiches and decided to bring one down to Tony. He probably hasn't been up yet given that the coffeemaker still had half a pot.

***

"So..." Clint made his voice louder than necessary as they zoomed their way through the NYC airspace on Lola because dating the Director of SHIELD meant that they got a free pass to skip traffic. "...you're telling me that, Steve wants a _Christmas Tree_? The real one. Not the fake, plastic and thin wired ones that you can buy in Walmart or Target. He wants an _actual_ dead tree in the middle of the tower? Is he for real?"

He stopped, turning around so he can study the man beside him more closely. "Did he actual say that he wanted a Christmas tree?"

Phil shrugged. "Steve may have implied that he wanted... a more traditional decorations around the tower. Then yes, he did say that he wanted a tree. I guess the holographic aren't really his things. They're great to see but they only appease one of our five senses."

"uh-huh" Clint said and slumped back to the seat. "Is this the part where I arrange a top secret meeting with the rest of the Avengers without the team leader knowing about it?"

The side of Phil's eyes crinkle. "I knew there was a reason why I kept you around, Agent."

"Yeah. Yeah" Clint mumbled and stuck out his tongue. He grabbed his StarkPhone from the dash and started tinkering with it. "So who's bait? Natasha won't do. Tony would freak if it was her and Steve again. You remember _that_ mission, right? Tony was sulking for _days_ and he tinkered with the _toaster_! But if we use _Tony_ , he'll end up blabbing it to Steve and ruin the entire surprise. That man has verbal diarrhea when he's around Steve..."

"Banner" Phil supplied as they neared SHIELD HQ. "Dr. Banner. Find something that Bruce can do with Steve. We'll need Tony in the meeting to setup the protocols with JARVIS. Bruce is our best choice. He's smart enough to string Steve along without revealing the plan to him. They can do the thing that Bruce likes to do... urgh _Pilates_? The meditating thing."

Clint kissed him on the nose before disembarking. "See you in two hours boss! I'm hitting the mats with Nat today~"

**Author's Note:**

> [Inspire me!](http://arh581958.tumblr.com/submit)


End file.
